Separately, an advisor to Iraq's finance minister was shot dead as he was driving through western Baghdad's predominantly Sunni al-Jamia neighborhood Sunday morning, an Interior Ministry official said. He was identified as Qutaiba Badr-eldin.

A Shiite headmistress of an elementary school in Saydiya in southwestern Baghdad was killed by gunmen Sunday afternoon, the official said.

Also on Sunday, an explosive device detonated underneath a car near the Green Zone in central Baghdad, wounding one civilian, the official said.

At least three policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated Sunday afternoon near their convoy in Harthiya in western Baghdad, the official said. E-mail to a friend